KEYBOARD EMERGENCY! Need advice for what to do when keyboards are filled with water...

Submitted by Zev t3_zudq1a in MechanicalKeyboards

So this is the least life-or-death emergency possible, but I had a pipe break in my basement and it just happened to be directly above the shelving system with a ton of my keyboards (pic below showing about half of it and my dopey dog).

All the keyboards on the top are preonics (and cruelly, all my favorite boards), which are hi profile cases, so they literally filled up with water, so the PCB and switches were submerged.

I heard the pipe pop and had it turned off in about 15 seconds, and the keyboard were out of the rack and face down on a towel in about 2 minutes, so they did not sit in that state for very long, but now I am trying to figure out what to do...

Any advice? There is another pic of them as they are now below. What should I do to preserve the PCBs? How do switches react to being submerged? I have not taken anything apart, my initial thought was just to leave them face down on a towel for a week and let them dry out naturally. I am in Colorado, it is suuuuper dry here, so I don't worry about humidity/mold or anything.

Really appreciate any advice, especially if you have saved a keyboard from a similar situation.

PS. Literally no damage to my house, 90% of the water was on the keyboard, pipe was above ceiling access point and was feeding just an outdoor faucet, so only only thing impacted was my keyboards. The humanity!!!!

A pic with the shelf to the right: https://imgur.com/a/Q16Rq8U

Sad, keyboards drying before death pic: https://imgur.com/a/lTOykxP

34

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

Cobertt t1_j1ipq1j wrote

I’m leaving this up as it’s no ordinary help request.

If it were my boards, the first thing I would do is drain them like you did and pull them apart, removing keycaps, and pcbs from cases. Keycaps and cases should be fine just dried off. Now if any are hotswap, take the switches off and inspect to see if any water got in them, hopefully the keycaps acted as little umbrellas and you’ll be alright. The pcbs I would take some very high percentage isopropyl alcohol and wipe down as much as possible. The alcohol should make the majority of the water evaporate and then by wiping them down you are removing any deposits left by the possibly hard water. I would do this asap and then one more time about 24 hours later just to be safe. I’d wait another two days to plug them in, making sure they are super dry.

36

Zev OP t1_j1is6s5 wrote

Thank you for allowing the post, I appreciate it!

I have pulled one board apart so far, and the PCB is soaked, but I think you are right, the caps seemed to have protected the switches, I popped a couple open and there is not water inside the switch.

Going to give the alcohol idea a try, thank you!

5

Cobertt t1_j1it29v wrote

Yeah no problem, your best bet is to get the pcbs dry as soon as possible. The alcohol will help evaporate any water trapped where you can’t see it.

3

QWERKey-UK t1_j1is5zy wrote

None of them were powered up, so there's a very good chance they will be OK. I would strip them down, and let them air dry in a warm dry place. Once dry you can give the PCBs a gently wipe with isopropyl alcohol, but if it's just clean water, they may not be necessary.... but I would anyway. If you live in a very hard water area though, I definitely would clean with alcohol.

Switches however, that may be a different matter. They should be OK once dried out, but if they were lubed, I would want to relube them once all the water is out. The Preonics hot swap? If not, that may not be an option you wish to take, obviously.

The fact that they were not powered means the chances are good. I would leave at least two or three days AFTER they appear to be all dried out... so just strip them down, put them somewhere warm and dry, wipe off the PCBs with IPA after 24 hours, then put them back in the warm dry place until new year before you power them up again. In fact, if you have a large seal-able container that fits everything, and lots of silica gel, that may be a good idea.... but only with silica gel... if you don't have any, don't seal them inside anything. Without the silica gel, any moisture will just be trapped inside the container.... with it, the silica gel, being a desiccant, will absorb and trap the moisture.

10

Zev OP t1_j1j46lb wrote

Thank you for the advice! I have stripped them down and it seems like all the switches made it super dry, I would not have guessed they are as water-sealed as they seem to be!

I have them stripped and heading out to get IPA and looking at silica gel, have not heard of that before!

2

QWERKey-UK t1_j1kw1o2 wrote

It's those little packets with bead like things inside that is often part of electronics packaging. It's not make or break, but if you can store the boards with some of that it may be helpful. Otherwise, just a warm dry place for a few days.

Merry Christmas, and I hope everything is OK.

3

Plane_Flow_3761 t1_j1j2yht wrote

If any are wireless defs take the battery out

6

Zev OP t1_j1j4t9w wrote

Great call, thank you!

2

Zev OP t1_j1ihgbg wrote

Quick follow up, it was only the 6 keyboards on the very top that were actually submerged, the rest just got some light splashes if even that, but I have them all laid out because I kinda freaked out in the moment

4

shyrix t1_j1jisdz wrote

only the ones with battery are in imminent danger. the rest of them should be able to dry off, no current running thru em.

3

urmomsatmyhouse t1_j1ivxmh wrote

I would not recommend putting the PCBs in rice. Chances are, since they weren't plugged in, they should be fine. Adding rice can introduce a bunch of particles into your keyboard (esp if hotswap) and it's just a bad idea all around. Pat them off with a towel or something. Good luck!

2

Ezzy77 t1_j1jvrus wrote

Yup, rice in general does nothing really to curb the real damage. A lot of distilled water to wash the normal water away and then dry. Might help minimize the oxidation.

3

Zev OP t1_j1j4b2p wrote

Thank you! my first thought was rice too, but assumed the same thing you did around adding rice dust everywhere hah

1

AutoModerator t1_j1ifxkw wrote

Please check if your post is a help request.

As per the rules, "Help requests, keyboard buying advice, and simple questions must be posted in the daily post stickied to the top of the subreddit or it will be removed without explanation."

Please post the question here.

If this message was in error, please report this comment or send a modmail with a link to your post for manual approval.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

Artistic-Mud-3811 t1_j1iwwdr wrote

pcb will likely be fine. You can soak it in 99% isopropyl alcohol if you really want to make sure every part is good, and it's easier than manually cleaning.

1

rafale77 t1_j1ixh1q wrote

Many good advices already. The key is to dry the boards out as quickly as possible and to not power them up until you know they are dry to prevent any shorts which would fry components. Leaving humidity/water in contact with components will lead eventually to oxidation so time is of the essence. If I only had a handful, I would immerse the PCBs in an IPA bath before letting them airdry but you may have too many to do that. Alternative is to use a hair dryer in low settings and dry them at 40-50C.

1

Zev OP t1_j1j4sdj wrote

Hi! Thank you for the advice! With a number of people suggesting IPA, I was going that route, but was assuming I would be applying the IPA to the PCBs with a cloth. It sounds like you are suggesting immersing the whole PCB in IPA, is that right? I have only 6-7 that were fully submerged and have a ton of moisture on them now that I have started taking them apart. No problem to immerse them, but I have not done that before, want to double check I am understanding right before I put them all the way in instead of dabbing them with cloth.

Thanks!

1

Milo_Xx t1_j1k2s3f wrote

Maybe silica gel can also help with drying, since they add that to l'île every package of electronics

1

zkooceht t1_j1lm0w6 wrote

I wouldn’t be worried about keycaps or the pcb. I would be worried (and pretty salty) if I had hand lubed switches in there

1

MiSTaKeN1595 t1_j1ir7lp wrote

try leaving the PCBs in rice for a while? and cleaning them w 90% isopropyl alcohol?

i'm not sure if you can save the switches but it's worth a try

good luck and sorry to hear about the boards 😕

−2

bryguyok t1_j1iycn2 wrote

Never put any electronics in rice, especially as the starch and powders in rice will mix with water and congeal making it even worse. Silica gel if in a humid environment but natural drying and alcohol is best.

4